Australian pension giant IFM Investors wants to buy the M6 toll road

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The 27-mile toll road was designed to ease traffic in the West Midlands in 2003 (Source: Getty)

Shruti Tripathi Chopra

The M6 toll road could be snapped up by an Australian pension fund as early as this month.

IFM Investors is the frontrunner for Britain’s only pay-as-you-go motorway, the Sunday Times reported.

The 27-mile toll road, which was designed to ease traffic in the West Midlands in 2003, is owned by a group of 27 lenders including Credit Agricole, Commerzbank and Novo Banco. The lenders snapped up the M6 from Macquarie in December 2013.

Sources told the paper that Brexit uncertainty and traffic volumes might lead to M6's owners lowering the price of the toll road from the original £1.9bn price tag.

Other bidders thought to be interested in snapping up the M6 include Spanish toll-road operator Abertis.

The M6 was built to carry just 72,000 vehicles a day, but today has to cope with up to 145,000. It is operated by Midland Expressway Limited,a private company with the government concession to design, build, operate and maintain the road until 2054. After this time the road will be handed back to the government.